School is back in session, football season has started, the weather is beginning to cool down, and General Conference is just around the corner. These ten church activity ideas make the most of it with low-cost activities that can work for a variety of church activities including Relief Society, Youth groups, and Primary activities. You’ll find everything from paper airplanes and emergency preparedness to team challenges, useful skills, and a little General Conference preparation.

Looking for more of a fall theme? We’ve got more of that over here.

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1) General Conference Training Camp

Growth Areas: Spiritual, Intellectual

Set up stations around the gym and divide everyone into teams. Rotate every 8 minutes.

Speaker Sprint- Spread the leader faces on one side of a table and the names on the other (or write names on a white board and use magnets). Our free First Presidency and Apostles printable or our Apostle Bingo Board work well for this or see if your library actually has pictures to use. One person at a time runs to the table, chooses a name, and places it beneath the matching face. The person child may correct one match or add a new one. Continue until all matches are made (set a time limit if needed). Give each team one point for each correct match. Make it more challenging by having them match the topic of their last Conference talk too OR have them assemble the members in correct seniority order. Finish the station by discussing: “Why might it help to recognize these people speaking during General Conference?”
Scripture Search- Race to find the following verses: Amos 3:7, Luke 1:70, Mosiah 8:16, Doctrine and Covenants 1:38, Doctrine and Covenants 21:4–5, Doctrine and Covenants 68:4, and Articles of Faith 1:6. You can set it up like a relay, racing for the reference, race back to the scriptures, find it, etc. OR hide the references in a pile of shredded paper or in a puzzle then find all the references. Finish the station with “What do these scriptures teach us about prophets?”
Eyes to See-Play a quick round of our General Conference drawing game. People take turns drawing one of the words related to General Conference weekend. This station can be just pure fun by guessing and taking turns drawing or you can split into teams and play for points.
Don’t Get Distracted- Complete a simple cup stacking challenge while leaders introduce silly distractions (Put on a party hat, silently wave a stuffed animal, fan the builders with paper, put on some music, walk backward around the table, put oven mitts on the stacker, etc.). then answer questions about a short paragraph that was read aloud. While they are building, one person read something like this, “The Lord usually teaches us through quiet impressions rather than dramatic interruptions. During General Conference, an answer may come through a speaker’s words, a scripture, a repeated theme, or a thought placed in our mind by the Holy Ghost. Listening includes noticing, recording, and acting on what we receive.” Once towers are build and the message is read, ask how much they remember about the message. Can they name four ways an answer may come or the three actions included in listening? You can end by discussing how we can best set ourselves up for success during General Conference weekend. What are some distractions we have control over and can eliminate?
Conference Trivia- Print our free trivia questions and pick a few you think your group would enjoy. The goal here is to really just have fun thinking about General Conference, not actually knowing all the correct answers.

Mix it up as you need for your group. We’ve got lots more General Conference freebies. You can even end the night by assembly some Conference Care packages for themselves or someone else. We’ve got treat tags you can use, free coloring pages, free printable activity pages, and even more in our Market.

2) Constitution Day: Build a Country

Growth Areas: Social, Intellectual

Constitution Day is September 17 in the United States and with celebrating 250 years, it’s a great time to celebrate through playing a game. Divide into small groups and announce that they’ve just founded a brand-new country. Give them 30 minutes to choose a name, flag, establish 5-7 laws, decide how leaders are chosen, determine citizens’ basic rights, and figure out what happens when someone breaks the law. Bonus points for scriptural references. Then give them surprise situations such as: Your leader refuses to leave office. A newspaper criticizes the government and may not even been 100% factual, two laws contradict each other. Compare their solutions with some of the problems the US Constitution was designed to address.

Tie in President Dallin H. Oaks’s talk, “Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution” or one of his other great talks like “Fundamentals of our Constitution.”

3) Paper Airplane Flight School

Growth Areas: Intellectual

Give everyone the same paper and test different designs for distance, accuracy, longest flight time, and closest landing to a target. Then give them a chance to redesign based on what they learned. Add a cargo challenge where the plane has to carry pennies or paper clips. All you need is paper, tape, measuring tape, pennies, and maybe a few tutorials. You can even use our free printable paper dart planes and hoops for some added fun.

Want to make life even easier? A good paper airplane book has easy to follow directions and some fun paper. Here are some great ones:

100 Paper Planes to Fold and Fly was a hit in our house. The paper makes it fun and the instructions are included. This one keeps it to just 4 different styles of planes so you don't get overwhelmed.
If you want more variety, The Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes has 10 different styles to choose from and lots of fun paper.
Want to do it again? Try Paper Flying Dragons. It's a little more complicate but way cool. They even have a Wings of Fire version.

And, of course, you can tie in a lot of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s talks like “Our Heartfelt All” or “A Matter of a Few Degrees.”‍ ‍

4) The Great Building Challenge

Growth Areas: Intellectual, Social

Raid your church closets or home recycling bin to supply this activity. You know, use those last 10 pink plates that no one ever will because it’s never enough. You do want to be able to give each team the same pile of supplies. Think paper, cups, straws, string, tape, cardboard. If you want to make it more challenging, you can give people 2 minutes to grab any supplies they want but they can’t ever go back for more after those 2 minutes.

Next, you’ll reveal one challenge at a time. Build the tallest tower, make a bridge that holds three hymn books, build a freestanding structure, create something that can move a ping-pong ball six feet without anyone touching the ball. The goal is to work togethering to meet the challenge of the moment.

Finish by talking about how we can build Zion together, starting in our church classes and ward.

5) Football minus the football

Growth Areas: Social, Intellectual

Start with a game that’s already ready to go. Head to our Quick Thanksgiving Games for Families post and scroll down to “Goalpost Squeeze.” It takes the classic paper football game and adds a fun twist. Give everyone a sheet of paper, teach them how to fold a paper football, and divide into small groups to play a few rounds.

Once everyone has the hang of it, turn the players into game designers. Give each group 15–20 minutes to invent a completely new game using their paper footballs plus anything readily available in the room. They might add paper cups as targets, masking-tape lines on the floor, chairs as obstacles, pencils as goalposts, or come up with something entirely unexpected. The only rules are that it needs to be safe, respectful of the church building, easy to explain, and playable in a short amount of time.

Then let each group teach its new game to everyone else and give it a try

6) Beat the Storm: Emergency Preparedness

Growth Area: Intellectual

September is National Preparedness Month and General Conference is a great reminder to check your emergency supplies. Give teams realistic emergency scenarios for your area and a pile of ordinary household items. For example: The power is out for 48 hours. What ten items do you choose?You have five minutes to evacuate. What comes with you? Then actually practice useful skills: shut off a pretend water valve, pack a grab-and-go bag correctly, learn what belongs in an emergency kit, practice contacting family when cell service is overloaded, etc. The goal is to leave with some practical hands-on knowledge instead of another lecture and checklist. If you have time, host additional classes like basic first aid. If you are doing this with the youth, invite them to think about how they can best use their talents and skills to help their families in an emergency, car emergency kit essentials, or go over some things that are smart to bring once they do venture off on their own.

7) Share, Swap, and Repurpose

Growth Areas: Intellectual, Spiritual

September is a great time to clean out closets before the holidays arrive. Invite everyone to bring clothing, books, household items, or other things they no longer need that are still in good condition. Set everything out at the church and let everyone “shop” for free. Anything left at the end can be donated.

The swap can be the entire activity, added to another activity night, or held open-house style on a Saturday so ward members can stop by throughout the day. Take it a step further by teaching a few simple ways to give worn-out items new life. Turn old T-shirts into reusable bags, make rag rugs, cut clothing into cleaning rags, or share other practical ways to repair and repurpose instead of throwing things away.

For a spiritual connection, pair the activity with Bishop Gérald Caussé’s October 2022 General Conference message, “Our Earthly Stewardship”. He taught that caring wisely for the resources God has given us is part of our stewardship and discipleship.

8) Fall Field Day

Growth Areas: Physical, Social

Take advantage of September weather while you still can and head outside for a fall field day with a twist. Divide everyone into teams and rotate through challenges that require a little teamwork, strategy, and plenty of movement. Skip the standard three-legged races and try:

Pumpkin Pass- Move a pumpkin from one end of the course to the other without using your hands. Make it extra challenging by not allowing the pumpkin to touch the ground too.
Nature Tower: Give teams 10 minutes to gather sticks, rocks, pinecones, leaves, and other fallen materials, then build the tallest freestanding structure they can.
Wheelbarrow Obstacle Course: Partners take turns being the wheelbarrow while navigating around cones, chairs, or other simple obstacles.
Blanket Volleyball: Teams hold the edges of a blanket or sheet and work together to launch and catch a lightweight ball over a rope or line.
Human Knot Race: Teams form a human knot, then race to untangle themselves without letting go of hands.
Giant Tic-Tac-Toe Relay: Mark a large grid with sidewalk chalk or tape. Players race one at a time to place their team's beanbag or marker, then hurry back to tag the next person.
Harvest Hunt Relay: Scatter pumpkins, pinecones, colored balls, or other objects around the playing area. Call out clues such as “something orange” or “something that grows on a tree,” and send one player from each team racing to bring back the right item.

Keep score throughout the night or play just for fun. Finish with your favorite fall treat.

9) 15-Minute Skill Swap

Growth Area: Intellectual

Tap into the talents already in your ward with a night of quick, useful classes. Invite three or four people to each teach a practical skill that can be learned or practiced in about 15 minutes. Ideas could include basic mending, indexing, making something for emergency preparedness, simple home repairs, organizing digital photos, a new instant pot recipe, budgeting, gardening, using a new cool program (like BingeBrowse), sewing on a button, editing videos, etc. These skills should be taught by those in your group already, not outside. It’s a time to share talents with one another and get to know each other better through these little lessons.

Every 15 minutes (definitely set a timer!), rotate to a new teacher- even if they aren’t quite done. You only get 15 minutes, that’s part of the challenge. People can always stay after to learn more or get together later. Encourage presenters to keep their demonstrations hands-on and beginner-friendly rather than trying to squeeze months of learning into one night.

Provide index cards so everyone can jot down something they learned, a helpful tip, or something they want to try at home. Keep supplies simple by asking presenters to use items they already own whenever possible. For skills that require special equipment, one demonstration set is plenty. You may need to one of these for a few months so everyone gets a turn to share their skill.

10) Progressive Games Night

Growth Area: Social

Give a regular game night a little more adventure with a progressive setup. Choose four different locations around the church building, church grounds, or within a walkable neighborhood. Divide everyone into small groups and send each group to a different starting point. Every 15–20 minutes, rotate to the next location until everyone has played all four games.

Make each stop completely different so there is something for everyone:

Lawn Game: Play cornhole, ladder toss, bocce, nine square, or another outdoor game someone already owns. Don’t have any? Our library has some you can check out. Check yours or ask around the ward.
Thinking Game: Set up a quick card or board game such as Spoons, Be Peculiar, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Mystery Words, or a fast team trivia game.
Ridiculous Team Challenge: Give the group something slightly absurd to accomplish together, such as building the tallest cup tower, getting a cookie from forehead to mouth without using hands, or one of our fun group games.
Cooperative Challenge: Everyone works toward the same goal instead of competing. Untangle a human knot, keep several balloons in the air for a set amount of time, complete a group puzzle, or move everyone across the room using only a few pieces of cardboard as “stepping stones.”

Put one leader or volunteer in charge of each location so the game is ready to go when a new group arrives. Keep the games short enough that groups can play several rounds before the timer goes off.

After the final rotation, bring everyone back together for a treat and chats. It has the fun of moving from place to place like a progressive dinner, without asking four different households to feed a crowd.

Use the last of the warmer evenings for a fall field day, gather everyone for a progressive game night, or keep things simple with paper, tape, and a good challenge inside the church. Pick the idea that fits your group, adjust it for the people you have, and enjoy an excuse to learn something new, work together, and have some fun before the busy holiday months arrive.

Looking for more ideas? Check out our Gospel Games page.